All language subtitles for Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu Chapter 15 Ordeal & Execution Read by Natasha Negovanlis.eng.eng

hello and welcome back to quarantine

story time with me

natasha negovanlis we are now on to the

second last chapter of joseph's shirt in

life news

gothic vampire novella carmilla

chapter 15 ordeal and execution

[Music]

as he spoke one of the strangest looking

men i ever beheld

entered the chapel at the door through

which carmilla had made her entrance and

her exit

he was tall narrow-chested stooping with

high shoulders and dressed in black

his face was brown and dried in with

deep furrows

he wore an oddly shaped hat with broad

leaf

his hair long and grizzled hung on his

shoulders

he wore a pair of gold spectacles and

walked slowly with an odd shambling gate

with his face sometimes turned up to the

sky and sometimes bowed down towards the

ground

seemed to wear a perpetual smile

his long thin arms were swinging and his

blank hands and old black gloves

ever so much too wide for them waving

and gesticulating in utter abstraction

[Music]

all the very men exclaimed the general

advancing with manifestolight

my dear baron how happy i am to see you

i had no hope of meeting you so soon he

signed to my father

who had by this time returned and

leading the fantastical gentleman whom

he called the baron to meet him

he introduced him formally and they had

once entered into earnest conversation

the stranger took a roll of paper from

his pocket and spread it on the worn

surface of a tomb that stood by

he had a pencil case in his fingers with

which he traced imaginary lines from

point to point on the paper

which from there often glancing from it

together at certain points of the

building

i concluded to be a plan of the chapel

he accompanied what

i may term his lecture with occasional

readings from a dirty little book

whose yellow leaves were closely written

over they sauntered together

down the side aisle opposite to the spot

where i was standing

conversing as they went then they began

measuring distances by paces and

finally they all stood together facing a

piece of the sidewall

which they began to examine with great

minuteness pulling

off the iv that clung over it and

wrapping the plaster with the ends of

their sticks

scraping here and knocking there at

length they

ascertained the existence of a broad

marble tablet

with letters carved in relief upon it

with the assistance of the woodmen who

had soon returned

a monumental inscription and carved

escutcheon was disclosed

they proved to be those of the long

monument of mercallah

countess karnstein the old general

though not a fear given to the praying

mood raised his hands and eyes to heaven

in mute thanksgiving for some moments

tomorrow

i heard him say the commissioner will be

here and the inquisition will be held

according to law

then turning to the old man with the

gold spectacles whom i have described

he shook him warmly by both hands and

said baron how can i thank you

how can we all thank you you will have

delivered this region from the plague

that has forged its inhabitants for more

than a century

the horrible enemy thank god is at last

tracked

my father led the stranger aside and the

general followed

i know that he had led them out of

hearing that he might relate my case

and i saw them glance often quickly at

me as the discussion proceeded

my father came to me kissed me again and

again and leading me from the chapel

said

it was time to return but before we go

home we must add to our party the good

priest who lives but a little way from

this

and persuade him to accompany us to the

schloss in this quest we were successful

and i was glad being unspeakably

fatigued when we reached home

but my satisfaction was changed to

dismay on discovering that there were no

tidings of carmilla

of the scene that occurred in the ruined

chapel no explanation was offered to me

and it was clear that it was a secret

which my father for the present

determined to keep from me

the sinister absence of carmilla made

the remembrance of the scene more

horrible to me

the arrangements for the night were

singular two servants and madame were to

set up in my room that night

and the atlassian with my father kept

watch

in the adjoining dressing room the

priest had performed certain solemn

rites that night

the purport of which i did not

understand any more than i comprehended

the reason of this extraordinary

precaution taken from my safety during

sleep

i saw all clearly a few days later the

disappearance of carmilla was followed

by the discontinuance of my nightly

sufferings

you have heard no doubt of the appalling

superstition that prevails in upper and

lower styria

in moravia celestia in turkish serbia

in poland even in russia the

superstition

so we must call it of the vampire if

human testimony taken with every care

and solemnity

due distally before commissions

innumerable each consisting of many

members all chosen for integrity and

intelligence

and constituting reports more voluminous

perhaps than

exist upon any one other class of cases

is worth anything

it is difficult to deny or even to doubt

the existence of such a phenomenon

as the vampire for my part i have heard

no theory by which to explain what i

myself have witnessed and experienced

other than that supplied by the ancient

and well-attested belief of the county

the next day the formal proceedings took

place in the chapel of karnstein

the grave of the countess merkala was

opened and the general and my father

recognized each of his

perfidious and beautiful guests in the

face now disclosed to view

the features though 150 years had passed

since her funeral

were tinted with the warmth of life her

eyes were open

no cadaverous smell exhaled from the

coffin

the two medical men one officially

present the other on the part of the

promoter of the inquiry

attested the marvelous fact that there

was a faint but appreciable respiration

and a corresponding action of the heart

the limbs were perfectly flexible

the flesh elastic and the leading coffin

floated with blood in which to a depth

of seven

inches the body lay immersed here then

were all the admitted signs and proofs

of vampirism

the body therefore in accordance with

the ancient practice was raised

and a sharp stake driven through the

heart of the vampire

who uttered a piercing shriek at the

moment in all respects such as might

escape from a living person in the last

agony

then the head was struck off and a

torrent of blood flowed from the severed

neck

the body and head was next placed on a

pile of wood

and reduced to ashes which were thrown

upon the river and borne away

and that territory has never since been

plagued by the visits of a vampire

my father has a copy of the report of

the imperial commission

with signatures of all were present at

these proceedings

attached in verification of the

statement is from this official paper

that i have summarized my account of

this last

shocking scene i'm kind of sad that

carmilla's dead

stay tuned for more the final chapter